Insanity
by Dysthymia
Summary: When Murdoc's daughter is found alive, but wanting to die. Mac and friends work to convince her it's wrong. Rated M just in case. Story name changed from Jumper.
1. Chapter 1

_epilogue_

Elodie woke to the sound of rock music. She could hear her mother singing along, and also the sounds of two others in hushed conversation. Why was she still alive? She knew she was supposed to die. She'd seen it in her dreams, and also as she'd laid on the floor of her aunts' compound bleeding out as MacGyver applied pressure to wounds. How could they stop her from finally achieving peace?

Slowly, she sat up. There wasn't any pain. Why wasn't there any pain? Elodie examined her arms, legs, and stomach. Not a mark. Even old scars had disappeared. What was going on here?" She got out of the bed, expecting to fall to the floor, but her legs felt just as sturdy as usual.

She stepped out of the room. She found her mother dancing while holding a baby while Murdoc and another woman were arguing about something. "Why am I alive?" Elodie demanded sharply. Everyone except the baby looked at her, freezing in place.

"I tried to tell you," the other woman told Murdoc. Elodie realized the woman was older than her by three, maybe four years. "I told you she'd be mad when she woke up. People tend to be mad when you pull them back."

"Would you shut up, Albertine?" Murdoc asked.

"What was that, lover?" Albertine demanded.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Elodie shouted. "I want to know why I'm not dead, and I want to know right _now_!"

* * *

_three months later_

MacGyver entered Pete Thornton's office. Pete was talking to someone on his phone, so Mac took a seat and waited, playing with a paperclip.

Finally, Pete replaced the receiver in it's cradle. He looked at Mac. "I have some news, Mac. We found her."

Mac looked up. "Her could mean any number of people, Pete."

"We found Elodie. She was trying to jump off a bridge in Tallahassee."

Mac dropped his paperclip. "What? Do you know why?"

Pete shook his head. "She's tight-lipped about it. Maybe you could talk to her? You got close to her when her family held you hostage."

"I had been planning to spend the weekend with Arianell," Mac said. "Jack's visiting and you know he'll want to take her flying or something. Going all the way to Florida and keeping an eye on them will be a little difficult, Pete."

"I'm having Elodie brought here. High security. She's been violent."

"That's probably because she's been wanting to die for some time. I figured out that she wanted to die after I'd had some time to get over the whole situation."


	2. Chapter 2

"She doesn't seem to violent," Mac told Pete upon seeing Elodie after her arrival.

"I think that's only because you're here," Pete answered. "She likes you."

Elodie looked up as Mac entered the room. "I understand you're been causing some trouble," he said. "Care to say anything about that?"

She shook her head.

"Pete told me you tried to kill yourself and that you're attacking everyone who tries to help you."

Elodie's eyes shifted to him for a moment. "They won't leave me alone," she said.

"They're not supposed to leave you alone. You're on suicide watch."

Elodie frowned at him. "Not them."

It was Mac's turn to frown. "Who then?"

"Aunt Ivy and the others," she said after several moments. "They won't shut up."

* * *

"She's been hearing voices, Pete," Mac said after he left the room. "I think she's been hearing them for a while."

"There seems to be mental instability on her mother's side," Pete said, not seeming surprised. "We've had Star in custody for the last three months and she shows all the markers for schizophrenia."

Mac frowned. "You never told me she was in custody. I was under the impression she died in the explosion."

"I thought I should keep the fact that she was still alive secret," Pete said. "She has enemies that could cause a lot of damage. Friends too."

"Out of all the voices she said she's been hearing, Star's not one of them. All of them are dead. The names I didn't recognize, she told me they were dead. They all seem to say the same thing: that they're dead because of her and she should die. They also tell her to kill people."

* * *

Elodie shut her eyes tightly. "Shut up, shut up, shut up," she murmured. "I won't kill him. I'm done killing people for you. I'm done killing." Tears began to stream down her cheeks as the door opened again.

MacGyver crouched down in front of her. "The doctors want to put you on a medication to stop the voices."

Elodie looked up at him with a frown. "They won't stop," she said.

"The medication is supposed to stop them," he told her.

She looked at him doubtfully.

"Do you know anything about schizophrenia?" he asked.

Elodie shook her head. "I only learned what Aunt Ivy wanted me to know."

"I think it's time for you to start learning all the things she didn't want you to learn. Try the medication, ok? Try it for me."


	3. Chapter 3

"That girl is so stubborn!" Mac told Jack Dalton two days later. "I have to sit in front of her for two hours before she'll take her medication. After that, I have to make sure she swallowed it."

"You should open a home for wayward kids," Jack teased, assuming Elodie was just a foster child. "'MacGyver's Home for Teens.'"

"It's not funny, Jack. All sorts of promises had to be made just to get her to agree to even take any medications. I'm starting to feel like I'm a nurse."

"'_Nurse_ MacGyver's Home for Teens," Jack said.

"I'm not kidding, Jack. Every sharp object was removed from the house yesterday, just so that she could be here. I'm living with two very stubborn teenage girls, one of whom just happens to be the daughter of two maniacs!"

"What?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Apparently, Murdoc has a very active sex life," Mac said. "You weren't paying too much attention earlier, were you?"

Jack made a face, his mustache moving upward as he did so. "He had the nerve to reproduce?"

"Obviously, he did!"

"Aren't those girls being awfully quiet?" Jack asked, noticing how silent it had become.

Mac looked into the room the girls were in. They were quietly discussing something. "You better not be talking about boys, Arianell," he said. "I'm not ready for that."

"What if _I'm_ talking about boys?" Elodie asked.

Mac scowled. He didn't like that idea either. "They're talking about boys," Mac grumbled as he turned back to Jack.

* * *

Elodie thought of the baby at night. Her brother, Michael. She'd left only partly because she was angry. She'd also left to protect him. When Ivy's voice began to urge her to kill him, she ran. Hitched rides as far as she could. Finally, she tried to jump off a bridge after the voices became too much. But someone stopped her. Was that good or bad? If the medication he urged her to take was supposed to work, then why was she still hearing voices? What if she didn't really have the condition she'd been told she had. Sure, MacGyver had told her it could take a while to really be effective but still... Maybe she could do some research...?

She scratched at one arm, just enough to bleed. She needed to feel the pain. Was that a bad thing? People sure acted like that sort of thing was bad.

* * *

Mac had heard Elodie moving around, so he'd gotten up to see what she was up to. He had to be ready to stop her from doing anything stupid. She stood at the edge of the marina, seeming completely unaware that she was being watched. Suddenly, she began to tip forward.

Mac rushed over and grabbed one arm. She didn't respond at all, which worried him. As he brought her inside, he noticed an odd cast to her eyes. She'd been sleep walking. As he thought of what to do about the situation, he noticed a scratch on one arm and dried blood under a fingernail on the opposite arm.


	4. Chapter 4

Murdoc had quietly watched from the shadows. The fact that she was with MacGyver really stuck in his craw, but at least now he knew why Elodie had ran off. Now he had to decide: take her back or leave her with the man he most wanted to kill. It wasn't an easy choice. He hated MacGyver, but he was keeping Elodie from killing herself.

He'd had so many chances to just shoot the troubleshooter dead, take his daughter and leave, yet... he couldn't do it. Murdoc couldn't kill MacGyver while he was looking after his only daughter. He swore softly as he left. "Kill you later, MacGyver," he whispered.

* * *

MacGyver had cleaned and dressed the scratch on Elodie's arm. Jack had been woken up when she'd been brought back inside. Elodie stared ahead with a blank face. Jack decided he should snap his fingers in front of her face. "Hey, wake up," he said as he did so.

Mac caught Elodie's arm as it swung towards Jack's neck. "Bad idea, Jack. What were you thinking," Mac asked.

"I thought I was waking her up!" Jack replied.

"All you did was make her react violently."

Elodie blinked. "I'm awake now," she said. She looked at Jack. "Don't ever try that again. Next time, your windpipe might be crushed.

Jack rubbed his neck self consciously. "Hey, uh, Mac... if it's ok with you, I'm staying far away from this little killer."

This statement caused both Mac and Elodie to stare at him for several long moments. Mac held onto her arms, just in case she decided to attack.

"I never wanted to kill," Elodie finally said. "My family made me kill. It wasn't a choice."

"That wasn't nice to say in front of her," MacGyver told his friend.

"But she's the one related to bloodthirsty killers!" Jack protested while making sure he was further away.

"That's not her choice," Mac said. "You know that no one gets to choose their family. And... you weren't there to see how her family treated her. The things she had to go through... if you'd witnessed that, you'd understand her better than to think she's just a bloodthirsty monster."

"It's curl his hair," Elodie told MacGyver. "He couldn't handle it."


	5. Chapter 5

"How is Elodie doing?" Pete asked.

"She's been hurting herself," Mac answered. "I'm not sure if she does it in her sleep or if she does it while she's awake. She won't tell me." He paused a bit. "She sleep walks."

"That isn't good," Pete commented.

"Jack tried to wake her up and almost got his windpipe crushed. Now he'd terrified of her."

"Some would say he should be. Look at her parents, for gods sake!"

"Jack pointed out how horrible her parents are many times."

"In front of her."

Mac nodded. "And she didn't kill him. I think she decided she's done with that. There could be a problem with that though. Her mother and Murdoc probably have other plans."

* * *

Jack looked at the two teenage girls sitting in across the room from him. He wasn't sure he understood the relationship between them. Elodie's aunt had killed Arianell's mother, but Arianell was willing to be friends with her? He didn't get it. He shifted nervously. Even if Elodie didn't look at him, he still felt like she was watching and waiting for a moment to kill him.

He'd wanted to take Arianell flying but noooooooo... MacGyver had to be all MacGyvery about it.

A woman came into the room. "Elodie, you have to come in and talk to me," she said.

Elodie looked at her as if someone stood behind the woman. "I'd rather not," she answered.

"Is there someone behind me?" the woman asked.

Elodie shook her head. "No."

"Are you sure? You looked at me like there was."

The girl shook her head again. "There's no one."

"Are you going to come in and talk to me now?" the woman asked, deciding to press the original subject.

Elodie shook her head a third time, looking away this time.

"Do I need to talk to MacGyver or Mr. Thornton about this? You agreed to go through therapy."

"Not with you," Elodie told her.

"You mentioned my name specifically?"

"I requested no fakes," Elodie said. This time she looked at the woman again. "I saw it. Your tattoo. The one from the family. On your right wrist."

The woman tugged on the cuff of her right sleeve. Jack looked in time to see a little bit of a tattoo. "Many people have tattoos, Elodie," she said. "Not all of them are assassins."

MacGyver and Pete were coming out of Pete's office just then. Mac frowned. The therapist wasn't supposed to know about Elodie's family. Pete quietly retreated to his office to call security.


	6. Chapter 6

The woman hardly reacted at she was surrounded. She held up her hands. "Relax, would you? Holly sent me to check on her. For the record, I do have a degree in psychology," she said.

"I'm supposed to believe that?" Mac said, echoing the exact thought going through Pete's mind.

"You don't have to believe me, but I am going to let your people handcuff me and put me in an interrogation room," she said. "If you'll do the research on my code name, you'll learn that I've been out of the assassin game for the last 15 years."

"You're right," Pete said, "we don't have to believe you. We're doing the research though. I know your code name from your tattoo."

"You could have gotten it removed or changed," Mac said. "If you quit, why didn't you go either of those things?"

"I can't tell you that. I can tell you that Holly sent me because I have something in common with Elodie. Something she'll understand."

"What's that? Besides you supposedly quitting being an assassin."

The woman leaned forward. "I also hear the voices of the dead, but I've learned to manage it. Without poisoning my body with medications that will only make it worse."

"This is just a ploy to bring her back to her mother, isn't it?" Mac asked. "There's no such thing as psychics and ghosts."

Elodie stood silently nearby, listening to this exchange closely. This was an interesting development...

"Just because you don't hear or see them, Mr. MacGyver doesn't mean they don't exist. Spirits only themselves to people who are meant to. They can be vengeful, or benign," the woman said.

* * *

Later, the woman sat in an interrogation room as three men stood guard outside and another two were inside the room while MacGyver and Pete talked privately.

"I think this is all having a negative effect on Elodie," Mac said. "Elodie actually asked me if she could talk to that woman when she was taken to an interrogation room."

"You're forgetting how reluctant she was to start taking medication," Pete told him. "This girl was raised in an incredibly toxic environment. She was conditioned by assassins. That woman may have had a hand in that conditioning."

"I'm not forgetting it, Pete. I'm concerned. Elodie's never had a normal life and here's someone who fully intends to screw up any normalcy she might ever have. I'm also thinking that someone had to have been either following Elodie or watching me for her mother to know where she is. I don't like that."

"Not to mention that she might be the only one who'll fill in the blanks from when her aunt had kidnapped you and tried to kill you?" Pete asked. "I know that you don't know everything that happened then."


	7. Chapter 7

Elodie thought. Should she or shouldn't she try to get into the interrogation room to talk to that woman? MacGyver asked her not to, and she respected him. But... she wanted to know what that woman had been talking about. She looked at the door for several moments.

Jack saw Elodie looking at the door and shook his head. "Don't even think it, kid. I'm the irresponsible one here," he said. "At least that's what MacGyver says."

Arianell gave him an odd look.

"What?" he asked.

"If you say you're irresponsible, doesn't that really mean you are responsible?" she asked.

Jack screwed up his face in though. "Don't try to confuse me," he said.

Mac and Pete came out of Pete's office and headed for the interrogation room. "Jack, you're the oldest kid, but you're the most irresponsible, so they're watching you," Mac said, having clearly heard their short conversation.

As the door closed behind MacGyver and Pete, Elodie looked at the exit. If she couldn't be in the interrogation room, maybe she should just leave...

"Don't think about that either," Jack said.

Elodie looked at him. "You're not my dad. Your're not my mom. And you're not MacGyver, so shut the fuck up!"

Jack blinked at her. "Hey, I really don't think Mac'd like you cussing."

"And I don't give a fuck what you think either!" She got up, intending to head for the exit, but instead headed for the bathroom. They wouldn't try to stop her from going in there.

* * *

Elodie blinked, then frowned. Where was she? Hadn't she just been at the Phoenix Foundation with MacGyver? She glanced down at the water flowing underneath the bridge she stood at as her aunt's voice pounded inside her head. Suddenly, someone pulled her off the bridge. She squirmed around, trying to get away.

"This has to stop," MacGyver said. "If you keep doing this, I can't keep my promise not to put you in a mental hospital. You realize that, don't you?"

Elodie froze. "Doing what?" she asked. "I don't remember coming here, wherever here is."

Mac released her with caution and turned her around. "You went back to sleep after I brought you inside last night. You've been sleep walking again ever since. Jack, Pete and I have been searching all over for you. All night."

She frowned. "We weren't at the Phoenix Foundation?" she asked.

Mac shook his head. "Not for one second."


	8. Chapter 8

Elodie regarded her therapist warily. The woman looked exactly like the woman in her dream. "Tell me about the dream you had," the woman said.

Elodie didn't speak. She looked at the woman's sleeved arms.

"Is there something wrong with my arms?" the woman asked. She rolled up her sleeves. "See? No tattoos. MacGyver told me about the tattoos your family use to identify each other." She paused. "If you're not ready to talk about your dream, maybe you'd like to talk about your childhood."

Elodie continued to stare at the woman's arms.

"The things you had to do were pretty horrible, weren't they? The things your aunt did to you were terrible, as were the things she had people do to you. Do you feel guilt over any of those things?"

Elodie refused to answer. She was still staring at her therapist's arms.

"Alright," the therapist said. "Let's do a little test. We'll get some soapy water and see if there's anything under the skin you don't see now."

* * *

"This hasn't been easy to see her go through," Mac told Pete. "First, they say she has schizophrenia, and now they think she might have guilt induced hallucinations instead."

"Misdiagnoses happen, MacGyver. You know that," Pete said.

"It's still not easy. She was this innocent little baby, but her aunt treated her so badly and made her think it was her fault. I'm sure Elodie's mother and Murdoc aren't much better for her. Why else would she have ran?"

* * *

The therapist dried off her arms. "There, you see? No tattoos. Would you like to talk now?"

Elodie was silent for several moments.

"Elodie?"

"She told me to kill him," she finally said.

"Who told you to kill whom?"

"Aunt Ivy... I heard her telling me to kill him." A tear slid down Elodie's cheek.

"She told you to kill who? MacGyver?"

"My brother. She wanted me to kill him. She keeps telling me to go back now and kill him."

"You have a brother?"

"He's just a baby. My dad has a baby with his girlfriend. And Aunt Ivy wants me to kill him."

"Is that why you ran away?"

Elodie nodded. "She doesn't stop."

"I want you to start reciting a phrase every time you hear her voice, alright? Every time you hear her or anyone else you know to be dead, repeat, 'I know you are dead and you cannot control me.' You see, the things your aunt ordered you to do in life and the things she did to you or had others do to you are not your fault. The guilt lies with her. Not you. I think once you truly realize that, you'll get a lot better. I also think it's time for you to start letting doctor's give you physicals as part of your therapy. You need to learn to trust people. Do you understand this?"

* * *

A/N: I'm hoping for this next chapter to be the last chapter of this story, as I'm trying to keep stories under the double digit chapter range.


	9. Chapter 9

MacGyver wondered if Elodie was even cooperating with the doctor she'd been brought to. She certainly fought going. There was another worry. Having to take her to a doctor made him wonder what happened to him while unconscious while being held captive by Ivy. He couldn't drive the worry from his mind. The door opened, cutting off his thoughts as the doctor asked him to come in.

"You've got a very... interesting child you're looking after," the doctor said.

"I'm aware," Mac answered.

"I've found very little evidence of the past injuries that I was told of. What I did find indicates that she recovered well over a year ago. Where are her parents?"

"No one knows. I don't even know their real names."

"I see. We'll move on to another matter of concern... Her pregnancy is..."

Mac blinked. "What?"

"You didn't know about this?" the doctor asked.

"Obviously not!"

"I see," the doctor repeated. "It seems a very normal and healthy pregnancy of twelve weeks, concerning that Elodie has said she's never received medical care in the past for anything."

"Her aunt had a big role in her upbringing. She was very abusive. Domineering. I think it's safe to say that Elodie was terrified of the woman."

"Elodie did mention that. Vaguely. Is she..."

"She's receiving therapy," Mac interrupted. "It's one of the conditions of her living in my home."

* * *

Elodie remained completely silent for the remainder of the day.

"I'm not mad at you, if that's what you're thinking," Mac said. "Is that what you're thinking?"

She shook her head.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head and didn't answer.

"Did you know about your baby before you came here?" he pressed. Elodie didn't give any response. "Does your mother know?" he asked. Still no response. "What about your father?"

Elodie very quickly shook her head.

This was unsurprising. Mac highly doubted Murdoc would ever want a grandchild. He was surprised that Murdoc was even willing to have any children at all. He was sure that Elodie would take off at the first opportunity if it even looked like Murdoc knew. "You need to stay here. Don't run away. I mean it," he said when she gave him an odd look.

She got up and hugged him, which surprised MacGyver. She didn't seem like the hugging type. "I'm going to miss you," she mouthed.

* * *

The next morning

"She ran away again," Mac said as soon as Pete answered his phone. "Elodie's gone."

"But where would she go?" Pete asked.

"I'm guessing her mother. Unless she thinks her mother would tell Murdoc about her baby. Thing is, neither of them should be around children. Ever. Elodie grew up with the worst possible examples of parents. Her mother didn't do much to keep her safe, her father was never around, and her aunts tortured her! Unless we find her soon, that baby might end up worse than Elodie did."

* * *

_sequel to_ _come..._


End file.
